Having issues with my vet about my newly diagnosed cat

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Garfield

Garfield

Member Since 2018
Hi, My 14 year old cat Garfield was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago with diabetes after losing going from 17 pounds to 10 pounds in last several months. The last 4 pounds were fast since he dramatically decreased his food intake. My vet is also a dear friend who we have known for many years and has treated all my pets-dogs and cats. his initial blood sugar drawn at office was 400. All other labs were good. She placed him on novulin n 1 unit 2 x day. Did not say much about the kind of food to eat. Said not to worry about him and she would check him in a few weeks and that it would take at least a week to get regulated. So I went on line and found you all. I discovered that I could do glucose checks at home. I watched utubes and have managed to generally get his sugars. Well he still was not eating much and before I started insulin my checks were about 250-260 pretty consistently. Then when insulin started they would go from 80 to 300 ! So I called her. She became aggravated with me and told me NOT to check his insulin at all since it was not necessary. Said it was making me too nervous and was best not to do. It upset me since I do value her friendship!. He has been only eating a few bites of fancy feast canned foods, and friskies canned foods( looked up what were best low carb percentages for him). Last night I picked up a Rachel Ray nutrish container- his sugar was 200 before eating, and he gobbled it straight down!!! Well his sugar was 266 this am- I feel like I can get this under control but not sure what to do. Any advise would be helpful! He has acted better last day or too -more active.
His sugar tonight was 161 with fancy feast today and eating whole can at a mealtime now! Looking much better tonight!
 
ask your vet/friend how are you suppose to catch him going hypo in time if you dont check his BG at all!
you sound like you educated yourself and are doing a good job taking care of your garfield, trust yourself and do what you know is best for your boy, your friendship with your vet is not as important as him right now, if your vet/friend can't understand that, than they are not a true friend in the end!!
Perhaps, you could give main link to FD ( http://www.felinediabetes.com/ ) to your vet friend and ask her to please read up on the info that has help many of us keep our babies safe and quite honestly, made us more a pro at taking care of a diabetic cat than lots of our vets.

btw, we took our boy to a diabetes vet specialist, she said to always check BG before injections and also mid cycle if possible. think she knows more on the subject than your regular primary care kinda vets!
 
This may be one of those situations where you just have to smile and nod, and then go do your own thing without sharing it with your vet. Unfortunate, but may be the only way to save the friendship!

Testing at home is the ONLY way to keep your cat safe, and to make sure the dose he's getting is the right one. His insulin needs will go up and down and you need to be able to adjust his dose accordingly. If you don't know what his BG levels are, you can't adjust his dose; too little and it's not helping him, too much and it could be fatal. Keep doing what you are doing and get those tests, even if you vet says you don't need to! :):):cat::):)
 
thank you for your reply! It’s a gut thing and I can see what is going on . I just worry if his sugars get low then what do I do especially when I’ve been told not to test?
Sylvie said:
ask your vet/friend how are you suppose to catch him going hypo in time if you dont check his BG at all!
you sound like you educated yourself and are doing a good job taking care of your garfield, trust yourself and do what you know is best for your boy, your friendship with your vet is not as important as him right now, if your vet/friend can't understand that, than they are not a true friend in the end!!
Perhaps, you could give main link to FD ( http://www.felinediabetes.com/ ) to your vet friend and ask her to please read up on the info that has help many of us keep our babies safe and quite honestly, made us more a pro at taking care of a diabetic cat than lots of our vets.

btw, we took our boy to a diabetes vet specialist, she said to always check BG before injections and also mid cycle if possible. think she knows more on the subject than your regular primary care kinda vets!
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Sylvie said:
ask your vet/friend how are you suppose to catch him going hypo in time if you dont check his BG at all!
you sound like you educated yourself and are doing a good job taking care of your garfield, trust yourself and do what you know is best for your boy, your friendship with your vet is not as important as him right now, if your vet/friend can't understand that, than they are not a true friend in the end!!
Perhaps, you could give main link to FD ( http://www.felinediabetes.com/ ) to your vet friend and ask her to please read up on the info that has help many of us keep our babies safe and quite honestly, made us more a pro at taking care of a diabetic cat than lots of our vets.

btw, we took our boy to a diabetes vet specialist, she said to always check BG before injections and also mid cycle if possible. think she knows more on the subject than your regular primary care kinda vets!
Click to expand...
Sylvie said:
ask your vet/friend how are you suppose to catch him going hypo in time if you dont check his BG at all!
you sound like you educated yourself and are doing a good job taking care of your garfield, trust yourself and do what you know is best for your boy, your friendship with your vet is not as important as him right now, if your vet/friend can't understand that, than they are not a true friend in the end!!
Perhaps, you could give main link to FD ( http://www.felinediabetes.com/ ) to your vet friend and ask her to please read up on the info that has help many of us keep our babies safe and quite honestly, made us more a pro at taking care of a diabetic cat than lots of our vets


Having diabetic vet would be awesome- I live in a very rural area so have learned to do for myself including my cats care. If I can show here how this works and how better it is also maybe she will come around but am not sure she knows how to handle someone who checks sugars frequently. We will see what happens and yes I will be proactive. Garfield looking better each day ! Still not his usual but better! He caught a mouse in my house last night!! He does like to hunt. He doesn’t eat them just kills them and leaves them. Thanks again for all your advices and support !!! THANK YOU!
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Because I'm home testing I saved Merry's life just yesterday. He dropped to 2(36) and if I were not home testing I would not have known so would not have intervened with Corn Syrup & high carb food and Merry would either have died or ended up in the ER with a few thousand dollar vet bill. I'd rather test to keep him safe regardless of what any vet says.
 
LuanneP said:
Because I'm home testing I saved Merry's life just yesterday. He dropped to 2(36) and if I were not home testing I would not have known so would not have intervened with Corn Syrup & high carb food and Merry would either have died or ended up in the ER with a few thousand dollar vet bill. I'd rather test to keep him safe regardless of what any vet says.
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truer words were never spoken!
My cat survived sever symptomatic hypo by a miracle - no reason on Earth could ever convince me not to test while injecting insulin.
 
My first vet told me not to test Squallie. I am glad I ignored her! Home testing definitely saved his life when he dropped down to 22 within the first couple of weeks of diagnosis. Without testing I never would have known he was in trouble, because he is always completely asymptomatic with hypos. Testing is vital to the health and safety of your kitty.
 
I agree testing is absolutely necesary it can make the difference between life and death, in my case since I really wanted to keep the good relationship with my vet because he is a good one and handles a lot of issues with my kitties other than diabetes very well, when the vet told me that he did not recomended me to test because that would stress me, I politely told him that it actually stressed me more not no test and not to know, than the stress the test could cause, so I would appreciate it if he would humor me and just accept that I was crazy enough to want to test, that way well I didn't actually told him he was wrong and of course countinued testing also didn't told him I tested more than just at shooting time but well he didn't had to know all the details
 
Squalliesmom said:
I remember that very well, that really was almost a miracle, along with your steadfast determination to pull her through! Talk about trial by fire!
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Thank you , Lucy! :bighug:
The fire trial teaches one a lot in an hour (gives one grey hair and a reading glasses, too) :blackeye::cool:
It was awful to say the least.
Never ever again should anyone go through something like that ... no one!

And yet I see time and again ppl posting about their "wonderful" vets being discouraging re: home testing. I don't get it...

Do you think vets know how a death by Hypo looks? convulsed body and the swollen brain, the tongue hanging out of the gray colored mouth, the panting and the foaming at the mouth.. I think not. Maybe they should see it, sort of mandatory licensing pre requisite, why not?

Perhaps when they lose one of their own to it they'll pay attention.

Anyway, I strongly advise Garfield's mom to start home testing.
 
Tanya and Ducia said:
Thank you , Lucy! :bighug:
The fire trial teaches one a lot in an hour (gives one grey hair and a reading glasses, too) :blackeye::cool:
It was awful to say the least.
Never ever again should anyone go through something like that ... no one!

And yet I see time and again ppl posting about their "wonderful" vets being discouraging re: home testing. I don't get it...

Do you think vets know how a death by Hypo looks? convulsed body and the swollen brain, the tongue hanging out of the gray colored mouth, the panting and the foaming at the mouth.. I think not. Maybe they should see it, sort of mandatory licensing pre requisite, why not?

Perhaps when they lose one of their own to it they'll pay attention.

Anyway, I strongly advise Garfield's mom to start home testing.
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Tanya, I agree with you wholeheartedly! My former vet - the one who told me not to test at home - advised me not to worry about him going hypo, and if he did, I would know it. I asked her what to look for and she just said, oh, don't worry, you'll know! Well, he went hypo and I DIDN'T know! Thank God I was home testing! She also didn't tell me how to treat it! Just a couple of the reasons she is no longer my vet.
 
Squalliesmom said:
Tanya, I agree with you wholeheartedly! My former vet - the one who told me not to test at home - advised me not to worry about him going hypo, and if he did, I would know it. I asked her what to look for and she just said, oh, don't worry, you'll know! Well, he went hypo and I DIDN'T know! Thank God I was home testing! She also didn't tell me how to treat it! Just a couple of the reasons she is no longer my vet.
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So true! Merry has gotten very low a few times & he did not have any symptoms! Well, he is extra hungry when it happens but he has a great appetite anyway so if I weren't home testing I would just have thought he was asking for more food like usual, not because he was legitimately wanting to eat to save his own life.
 
My vet told me practically the same thing. She said that if I were going to home test, she would prefer that I don't spot check but rather do a glucose curve. Reason being that their glucose level does fluctuate throughout the day. With that being said, I feel much better knowing what his levels are. Just as @LuanneP did, just yesterday, I saved my Booger's life as well and that is all thanks to being diligent and home testing! He dropped down to 45 and was not showing any hypo symptoms! The only thing I did notice and it was not until I saw he was 45, was that his head would twitch every so often. I work from home so I am always here monitoring him. The vet just doesn't want you to freak out over his levels if they are outside of the 100's. But yes, I agree with everyone here, home testing is a MUST to save your furbabies life! I keep asking myself what could have happened if I had been asleep or not home when Bogger hypo'd yesterday. Booger also was not interested in his food when he was in hypo. I see that several have said that theirs were increasingly hungry but that is not always the case. You want to look for anything out of the norm for your cat, not just what symptoms you see online for hypo symptoms.
 
Yes I ha
LovemyBoogie said:
My vet told me practically the same thing. She said that if I were going to home test, she would prefer that I don't spot check but rather do a glucose curve. Reason being that their glucose level does fluctuate throughout the day. With that being said, I feel much better knowing what his levels are. Just as @LuanneP did, just yesterday, I saved my Booger's life as well and that is all thanks to being diligent and home testing! He dropped down to 45 and was not showing any hypo symptoms! The only thing I did notice and it was not until I saw he was 45, was that his head would twitch every so often. I work from home so I am always here monitoring him. The vet just doesn't want you to freak out over his levels if they are outside of the 100's. But yes, I agree with everyone here, home testing is a MUST to save your furbabies life! I keep asking myself what could have happened if I had been asleep or not home when Bogger hypo'd yesterday. Booger also was not interested in his food when he was in hypo. I see that several have said that theirs were increasingly hungry but that is not always the case. You want to look for anything out of the norm for your cat, not just what symptoms you see online for hypo symptoms.
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ve been checking Garfield ‘s sugar 2xday . He has been oninsulin 8 days now. I was home a little more toda and checked this am with insulin- was 253. I decided to checke at 1:30 when I got home it was 89 and I just checked at 4:45 181. He gets his insulin at 6pm so will check again. I will continue to check despite what vet said- not sure yet how to deal with vet yet . Plan on doing insulin curve tomorrow to see how things are- need advice on how to do it. Thanks for your support and encouragement!Garfield looks great today and acts almost like he did before all this came about- curious and more active and playful.
 
Glad to hear you are continuing with the home testing! :):):)

To do a curve you will need to test him either every two hours for a 12-hr period, or every three hours for a 24-hr period. :cat:
 
The information from the people on this site, home testing and diet change (no dry, all Fancy Feast and Friskies pate) combined, have saved my cat's life. I'm not sure why vets do not require those things for a cat diagnosed with diabetes. My vet didn't recommend any of it. Had I not done my research online and taken control of it all and just listened to the little bit my vet told me, I don't know that Marcus would still be here.

So, my advice to everyone who is new, while you still need to listen to your vet, also do what you can to provide your cat with the best possible outcome--read and learn from those here with tons of experience (which I don't yet have, but I'm also learning!)

My Marcus is doing great and I have not had to give him an injection since March 11!
 
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